


Yet Seeking

by Wolkemesser



Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Flash Fic, Ravnica
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 13:33:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15195848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolkemesser/pseuds/Wolkemesser
Summary: Fblthp the hapless homunculus finds himself on yet another thankless mission. What dangers and perils will he have to overcome as he infiltrates an orzhov stronghold?





	Yet Seeking

The boot caught Fblthp in the shoulder, flinging him back several feet. He barely managed to scramble out of the way as the boot’s owner swept past, cursing the homunculus with a trail of obscenities.

The Orzhov cathedral crowds were the worst. All sullen and distracted, and rushing to get away from the droning pontiffs.

Fblthp hated it.

Still, there was no better time to sneak into an Orzhov establishment. Before Fblthp had found his place tending to the Azorius gardens, he had gotten his meals by pilfering the alms plate after services. The Orzhov had so much gold, and a single coin meant a month of meals for someone his size.

That had been a forgotten life, until Parisha had swept Fblthp away to meet another arrester, Lavinia. She needed someone to sneak into Orzhova, and apparently the Azorius kept thorough enough records of street-level crime that Fblthp had come up as a candidate.

“One of my Boros contacts is missing,” She had said, “Before he disappeared he told me that if anything happened to him, the syndicate would be behind it. I need someone who can search their facilities…and keep a low profile.”

She had been so relieved to find a homunculus with a record of infiltrating Orzhov buildings that Fblthp didn’t have the heart to tell her his trips had never taken him past the altars.

After all, the thrulls were always watching.

Fblthp couldn’t bear to be around thrulls. Always sniffing about, faces hidden by those horrible masks. They were almost as bad as crowds.

Luckily the pontiff was especially worked up that morning, and the thrulls were so busy fanning him that Fblthp was able to slip past them through the congregation and into the buildings adjoining the cathedral.

The corridors were easier to navigate than Fblthp had feared. To the Orzhov, Fblthp was just another servant scurrying around at knee-level, and the thrulls were too busy attending to their masters to pay him much mind.

A few sniffed at Fblthp if he wandered too close, but the Orzhov seemed inclined to chastise the thrulls if they became distracted. Fblthp winced as one little fellow received a kick from its impatient master.

Those were the worst blows. The ones the big people _meant_ to hit you with.

He wandered around the building for hours, scurrying through chambers when they appeared empty, and scrambling up steps as tall as he was, not finding anything that indicated a missing Boros soldier.

Eventually Fblthp found himself at a dead end at the top of a long spiral staircase; a wall of solid stone gargoyles tangled together. He was forlornly contemplating the task of scrambling all the way back down the steps when he noticed a small alcove between two of the gargoyles.

An entrance no one would see if they were taller than a foot. A servant’s entrance, big enough for the smaller thrulls.

Or perhaps a homunculus.

_drip_

Something splashed onto Fblthp’s head. Something warm and moist.

_drip_

Another splash. Slowly, Fblthp looked up…

…right into the face of a snarling thrull.

Fblthp almost fell backwards. The thrull dropped from the ceiling and hissed, opening its mouth to reveal a pit of gleaming teeth. It slithered in a circle around him, on long coils smooth and pale as stone.

Fblthp couldn’t take his eye off of the plate of gold sealed over the its face. The flesh around it was puckered with scars. From up close Fblthp could see that the eyes behind the mask were dry and blind.

It looked painful.

The thrull loomed closer, mouth almost as wide as Flbthp was.

Fblthp reached out and put a hand on the thrull’s face.

It recoiled, just barely. The mouth closed partway, and the thrull sniffed the air, uncertain.

Fblthp patted the thrull. The arresters did that with their dogs sometimes. They were always a little less scary when they were getting pats.

The thrull reached out with a single hand and felt at Fblthp’s head. He had to shut his eye so the thrull’s finger didn’t poke him. When Fblthp opened his eye, the thrull was lowering something onto his face. A mask. It was much too big, and he could barely see out of the little eye-slits.

The thrull gave Fblthp a chiding prod in the side and slithered off, hissing faintly, leaving Fblthp alone on the landing.

Fblthp squeezed between the two gargoyles and wriggled through a short tunnel. The passage deposited him into a rather unremarkable, if cluttered room. There were desks and papers everywhere, and despite the wide windows, which should have been letting in sunlight, it was full of shadows.

It looked like a place where things would be hidden. Fblthp took the mask off and crept through stacks of books, looking this way and that…

“You’re not a thrull.”

Fblthp spun around. There was a woman sitting in the corner, half-hidden by shadows.

“Who sent you? Karlov? Vuliev?”

Fblthp perked up. She was a prisoner. Maybe she would be able to help.

He held out his hand, and a small tattoo on his palm glowed with the Azorius sigil.

“So _you_ are Lavinia’s idea of help? How did she know where I was?”

Fblthp shook his head.

“Nevermind. I require your assistance, little friend. Right now you and I are the only living creatures on this whole plane that know I am being kept here. I need to get out. Will you help?”

Fblthp nodded, and held the sigil up again for the woman to see.

“No. It can’t be Lavinia, or any of her arresters. The Obzedat have ways around the law that they’ve kept secret. I need you to find someone for me. Someone who has jurisdiction that goes beyond the guilds…”

She leaned over Fblthp, leaning heavily on her cane. Her eyes looked…tired? Pained? It was hard to tell when there were two of them.

“…tell me, have you ever heard of Agrus Kos?”

 

 

 

 

_“Yet Seeking” is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC._


End file.
